US Open with new topping from 2020
The American tennis association has chosen a new partner for the surface of the US Open.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Mar 24, 2020, 08:35 pm
For the next five years the Sport's Group is to equip the Grand Slam tournament in Flushing Meadows. The American tennis association announced on Monday in a press release. The Laykold covering should stand for a high degree of consistency in terms of quality and speed, it says here.
The US Open has been equipped with DecoTurf since 1978, with the famous "US Open Green". In 2005, at least the color was changed from solid green to green-blue (blue within the lines) in order to see the ball better. So far, Laykold has also played in Miami and at the Fed Cup games in the USA , the topping is considered to be somewhat slower than the previous one.
The main field games of the US Open are scheduled to take place from August 31 to September 13, 2020. As of now, the French Open will be rescheduled just a week later. This shift from May to September had been decided by the French tennis association on its own a week ago , and received a lot of criticism for this. On the other hand, it was again pointed out that it was good that Roland Garros should be played at all in 2020, since many tennis players depend on the income from the Grand Slam appearances. Only a week's break between the two majors is considered critical for the top players from a physical point of view, this is "hardly possible", said Jan de Witt in the tennisnet interview, for example. Rafael Nadal, who won the French Open and US Open in 2019, would also have to defend 4,000 points in the five weeks if these were to be offset. The world rankings have recently been frozen.
The tennis tour is currently paused until June 7th due to the corona pandemic. Whether the lawn season will continue as planned, is currently still open.